Contents

Production

After acquiring Power Rangers in 2002 as part of their purchase of the Fox Kids franchise, Disney decided to cancel the show at the conclusion of Power Rangers Wild Force, but were convinced to continue with the show when informed they could produce it for a fraction of the previous cost by moving production to New Zealand. As well as this, Disney chose to make the show non-union, which resulted in much of the crew (including long-time producer Jonathan Tzachor) being let go. Ninja Storm was based on the Super Sentai series Ninpū Sentai Hurricanger. A subsidiary of Disney named Buena Vista Entertainment managed the Power Rangers property after Disney took over, and MMPR Productions was dissolved. Doug Sloan, the production manager from the show's inception until the midway mark of Turbo, and Ann Austen (another past production team member) returned to Power Rangers for the first time in years as the head of the show for Disney. A few past writers were also brought back into the fold. Jackie Marchand returned to be the story editor. Koichi Sakamoto (the leader of Alpha Stunts team and producer) remained on the show. Ninja Storm brought a lot of light-heartedness to Power Rangers. This was met with mixed reception from fans. Nevertheless, Ninja Storm aired on ABC and ABC Family like Wild Force before it. Due to union and cost issues, Ninja Storm was the first season to not feature a team-up with the previous year's team since the trend began in Lost Galaxy. Due to the new ownership and its lighthearted story, the series brought new interest to the franchise as ratings and toy sales went up.

Doug Sloan would interact heavily with fans at this point, posting on Rangerboard and the Newsgroup. Sally Martin and Jason Chan (Tori and Cam on Ninja Storm) would also make appearances at Rangerboard. Doug would interact with fans for the rest of his run until the end of Dino Thunder.

An early episode in Ninja Storm's run was cut by the censors. It was later re-edited and shown out of production order. Originally it dealt with a peace conference to avoid a war, however, was held back due to the outbreak of the Iraq War as it was felt an anti-war message would not be appropriate. The episode, 'Snip It, Snip It Good' aired later in the run, with the peace conference substituted with an environmental conference.

Synopsis

"Deep in the mountains, secret ninja academies train our future protectors. Ancient scrolls told of three who would be chosen above the others. Three who would become..."

―Narrator[src]

A skateboarder (Shane Clarke), a surfer (Tori Hanson) and a dirt biker (Dustin Brooks), are students of the Wind Ninja Academy, under the tutelage of Sensei Kanoi Watanabe and his son Cam. Although it seems as if they will never be good enough to be a full-fledged ninja, they are the only three left when the evil ninja master, Lothor arrives on Earth and captures all the other students. Their sensei, who was transformed into a guinea pig by Lothor, decided that they would become Wind Power Rangers and gave them Wind Morphers to allow them to transform. As the Wind Rangers, they fought to save the world from Lothor and his space minions, using Zords created by Cam for emergencies.

Over time, they were joined by the Thunder Rangers, Hunter, and Blake, as well as Cam, who gained Green Samurai powers in a trip to the past.

The show marked a turning point for the franchise with a willingness to make fun of itself and its history (a theme that would return in "Dino Thunder".) Of special note is that Lothor, instead of the standard melodramatic evil emperor, had a sense of humor and often got lines that sent up the show. After making a monster grow, he seems to turn to the camera and say "What'd you expect? It wasn't going to get smaller." In the final episode, when piloting a robot against the Zords, he yells "This is the most fun I've had all season!"

Eventually, the Rangers managed to defeat all of Lothor's minions, unwittingly overloading the Abyss of Evil (to which they were all sent upon their demise). The Wind Rangers were able to stop evil from spreading across the Earth and sealed Lothor away in the Abyss of Evil...along with their own powers.

Now powerless, Shane, Tori, and Dustin became teachers at the rebuilt Wind Ninja Academy, aided by Cam and a newly human Sensei. Hunter took a job as the head teacher at the Thunder Ninja Academy while his brother Blake continued his racing career. And they lived happily ever after...

Thunder Storm

...that is until the following year when the Ninja Storm Rangers were forced back into action after Lothor arose from the Abyss of Evil.

The former Rangers are shown settled into their new careers. Blake goes to Reefside (the location of the Dino Thunder series) to compete in a motocross tournament and meets Conner, Ethan, and Kira when he's there. They go to watch him compete, but are perplexed when he is suddenly called away after the race.

Meanwhile, Lothor claws his way out of the Abyss of Evil. He forms an alliance with Mesogog and, posing as Sensei Watanabe, brainwashes Shane, Tori, and Dustin into taking corrupted power disks, which turns them to Lothor's side. They recapture the students of the Wind Ninja Academy and beat back the three primary Dino Thunder Rangers.

Hunter, Blake, and Cam enter the Abyss of Evil and fight off Zurgane to rescue their lost powers. As the Wind Ninja and Dino Thunder Rangers duel unmorphed, Hunter, Blake and Cam appear and cure the Wind Rangers of their mind control by using the true Wind power discs. The two teams of Rangers - including Trent Mercer and Tommy Oliver - meet with Mesogog and Lothor's combined force, obliterating it and causing Elsa to flee.

Mesogog and Lothor duel for supremacy. They seem to be evenly matched until Mesogog uses his mind powers to shrink Lothor to the size of an action figure ("Very collectible") and traps him a jar.

At the end, it is discovered that when the Ninja Storm Rangers' Powers were extracted from the Abyss of Evil, they only had enough energy for one last battle so they return to their normal lives, leaving the Dino Thunder Rangers to protect the world. Both teams watch Blake win the Motocross Tournament.

Notes

This is the first Power Rangers series to neither feature a Pink Ranger nor a White Ranger. All prior incarnations have either included a Pink Ranger or a female White Ranger took the place of the teams, Pink Ranger.

Ninja Storm is the first incarnation that does not have any interaction with any Rangers or characters from a previous incarnation, as Ninja Storm both occurs after the Zordon era and does not have a crossover with Wild Force. All previous incarnations have had interaction with at least one character of a preceding incarnation, by either crossover or in the case of Zordon era incarnations, had characters carry over from one incarnation to another. The next incarnations to not have interaction with or feature characters from a preceding incarnation in any form are Jungle Fury and RPM.

However, this is later retconned by the Dino Thunder crossover episode Thunder Storm in which the Ninja Storm and Dino Thunder Rangers teamed up during which Tommy Oliver of Mighty Morphin, Zeo, and Turbo fame was the Black Dino Ranger. Also in the 15th-anniversary crossover Once a Ranger, Tori Hanson appeared alongside 4 other "Retro Rangers" including Adam Park.

This is the first incarnation of the series since Zeo to not include the "Next time" segment after each episode.

This is the first time that a series starts with only 3 Rangers (although the standard 6 are in place by the series finale), followed by Dino Thunder and Jungle Fury.

This is the first series since Turbo to have an ending which features the Rangers losing their powers. The other series before this involved either the Rangers getting to keep their powers or instead of giving them up. The Ninja Storm Rangers briefly regained their powers in the Dino Thunder team-up, only to lose them again, but Tori would regain hers 4 years later in Once a Ranger.

This is the first series where all the Power Rangers actually had powers when unmorphed to use in everyday life. Though Andros from In Space is the first Ranger to have been born naturally with powers.

This is the first series to be aired on Jetix and Toon Disney. Thus, it is considered by many fans to be the official start of the "Disney Era" of Power Rangers.

During the 2-part "Shimazu Returns" story arc, the Rangers are forced to pilot their zords unmorphed, a Power Rangers first. This is especially notable as the cockpit scenes are usually from the Sentai counterpart and the fact the Power Rangers piloted the zords unmorphed required the US production to build sets not normally required and for the sets to match the Japanese sets.

While the Green Samurai Ranger has an identity in Ninja Storm (Cam), his original Japanese counterpart, Shurikenger from Ninpu Sentai Hurricanger's true identity was his permanently costumed form. Also, Cam's Sentai counterpart is actually a ninja, not a samurai.

This is the first team to be assembled from three different factions of Rangers (Wind Rangers, Thunder Rangers, and Samurai Ranger) rather than one group from the same power source. However, there are noticeable similarities in their suits.

It is the first (and currently only) season to have exactly three morphing calls. These morphing calls were "Ninja Storm, Ranger Form," "Thunder Storm, Ranger Form," and "Samurai Storm, Ranger Form".

Early in Ninja Storm, it is suggested that all previous series were just comic books, thereby retconning them out of the series canon and making Ninja Storm the first "Real" Power Rangers series, however, this proved highly controversial and the concept was abandoned. Though the comic book line doesn't necessarily invalidate the continuity as the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles assumed that the Rangers were just comic book characters in Shell Shocked.

In an episode, Marah and Kapri mention that "The boys from Triforia are three times as cute as Earth." This is an obvious throwback to Trey, the original Gold Ranger who split into three.

One of the reasons there was no team up between Ninja Storm and Wild Force is because of the change in ownership of Power Rangers from Saban to Disney, and since most of the production crew had been laid off in the process, none of the Wild Force actors chose to return for a team up episode.

This was the first series to only have one female Ranger. This would be repeated in Dino Thunder, and again Jungle Fury. Alien Rangers' Delphine is the only female on her team, but Alien Rangers is not a full season.

An early concept for adapting Ninpuu Sentai Hurricanger, called Hexagon, was drafted by Forever Red writer Amit Bhaumik. It would keep the core three Rangers but would deviate heavily from Hurricanger. Bhaumik's plot involved the return of Tommy Oliver joining forces with different previous Rangers to form a larger organization called the Hexagon. However, the Beetle Rangers (Gouraigers) would oppose this, starting a civil war of sorts between the two Ranger factions. This idea was discarded in production due to the unforeseen complications and expenses of using the American actors, as well as producing all new non-Sentai footage.[1]

This is the first Power Rangers series to have a female Blue Ranger, and the first since the Alien Rangers mini-series to have a male Yellow Ranger.

coincidentally, both teams are ninja themed. Excluding Chip Thorn, all Yellow Rangers adapted as males are ninja. If Kyuranger is adapted, it's possibility as one of the the Kyurangers is a ninja.

This is one of the three seasons where the three main colors (Red, Blue, and Yellow) are at the start. The other two being Dino Thunder and Jungle Fury.

This is the first Power Rangers series not to use the phrase "power down" to morph back to normal, instead of using "ninja form" (though this happens only once).

The Rangers use the phrase "power down" only in the Dino Thunder episode Thunder Storm.

This is the first season where the Rangers have an ending call after their morphs. This would later be followed by Dino Thunder, S.P.D., Mystic Force and Samurai.

This is the first season in which every Ranger had a special power.

This is the only season in which the eventual Sixth Ranger is a regular cast member right away but does not yet have Ranger powers.

Not counting seasons which do not introduce new casts at their outset (ie MMPR seasons 2/3 or any "Super" season), Cam is the ONLY Sixth Ranger to be a series regular from the beginning of his season.

This is the first post anniversary season that starts with 3 rangers the second being Jungle Fury.

This is the first post anniversary season that has a Male yellow ranger the second will be the season after Super Ninja Steel.

This is also the first and so far only post anniversary season with a female blue ranger, a navy ranger, and a crimson ranger.

Reception and Ratings

While the lighthearted story was a bit polarizing at first, the show was a commercial success. Many fans considered this one of the best Power Ranger seasons and critics praised the lighthearted humor, characters, and soundtrack.